


Couldn't Ask For More

by hoku_mahina



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Jemma Simmons has chill for once, POV Robbie Reyes, POV Skye | Daisy Johnson, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-30 08:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17220518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoku_mahina/pseuds/hoku_mahina
Summary: After feeling sick for several days, Robbie convinces Daisy to take a pregnancy test. Though it comes back negative, it forces them to consider whether or not they want more from life. Thankfully Jemma is there to remind Daisy that feelings are valid and blood tests are more accurate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my partner in fandom and wonderful beta WinterHoneyBunny for tolerating my thing for QuakeRider baby fics.

That morning he found Daisy with her back against the bathroom wall, her eyes closed and her hair in a messy bun. This was the third morning he had woken up in her bed without her beside him. Last night was the third time she had fallen asleep next to the toilet after puking her guts out. Each morning she had felt well enough to go to work, but by the time midnight rolled around she got terribly nauseous again. The first two nights he had stayed up with her, holding her hair and getting her some water. Last night, he hadn’t heard her leave.

  
With a heavy sigh, he knelt down in front of her. “Daisy,” he said gently as he brushed his fingers over her cheek. Her eyes opened slowly. When they landed on his face she smiled, but it was quickly followed by a grimace.

  
“Hey,” she said, her voice hoarse.

  
“You should take today off.”

  
She rolled her eyes at that and tried to get up. “Good one, Reyes.”

  
He put a firm hand on her shoulder. “It’s Friday, you’ve barely slept in the past three days, and if the team needs you to hack something you can do it from your room.”

  
Though she gave him a look, he could see her resolve wavering.

  
“And what if they need me to suit up?”

  
That argument was getting old. “S.H.I.E.L.D. has plenty of agents again, and lots of them could use the practice.”

  
Of course, she had her own rebuttal. “What if there’s an Inhuman in immediate danger? What if a robot takes over the base again? What if the world tries to end for the hundredth time? What about then? I can’t just not do my job, Robbie.”

  
For as long as he had known her, Daisy had always been stubborn about work. She was constantly putting the greater good and the well-being of her team before her own health. He had hoped she would relax a bit after they started their relationship, but he could rarely get her to take a day to have fun, let alone rest. But this felt different; there was something in her demeanor, some sort of tension around her eyes or urgency in her tone that made him realize this wasn’t just about doing her duty.

  
He sat down in front of her and put his hands on her criss-crossed knees. “What’s up, chica?”

  
She rolled her eyes again. “It’s just a stomach bug,” she said unconvincingly. “And I feel fine during the day, so there’s no reason I shouldn’t get work done -”

  
“Bullshit,” he interjected. She clenched her jaw, trying to look irritated, but instead looking far too guilty for someone confessing they simply had the stomach flu. He shuffled as close to her as possible, their knees pressing together and his hands holding hers. “Daisy, porfa, tell me what’s wrong.”

  
She held his gaze for a moment before letting out a long, shaky sigh. She glanced over his shoulder. “Under the sink,” she said as if resigning herself to something terrible.

  
He waited for further explanation, and when she didn’t give one he twisted to open the sink cabinet. Just on the other side of the door was a small pink box. He stared at it for a long moment before cautiously pulling it out.

  
“Is this a pregnancy test?”

  
She nodded. He could see her jaw working, and moisture was gathering in her eyes, but his mind was spinning too fast to comfort her.

  
“I’ve been throwing up at specific times of the day,” she said. “I’ve been really tired, even before I got sick. I've been crying for stupid reasons. And my period is late.” She finished with a sharp exhale. “I know we’ve been careful and I’ve been on birth control, but with all of the shit we’ve been through, I’ve missed a few weeks of the pill here and there, and protection is only so effective…”

  
“Hey, hey,” he finally managed to say. He set the box aside to cup her cheeks. “This isn’t your fault,” he said, though he hadn’t fully registered what ‘this’ was just yet. “This… it happens sometimes, and we don’t even know if… if it’s true yet, right?” She nodded again. “So… you should take the test, yeah?”

  
She tilted her head back and closed her eyes again. He was able to shift so that he was against the wall next to her. When his arms wrapped around her she rolled her head onto his shoulder. Neither of them tried to say anything else for a few minutes.

  
“I can’t stop working,” she whispered eventually.

  
He finally thought he understood. If Daisy was - díos, if Daisy was pregnant, that meant so many things. He knew about her family history, about how abandoned she felt while growing up, so he knew her opinions on adoption and foster care. That narrowed their options. If she wanted to keep the… if she didn’t pick the second option, that meant that she would almost definitely have to take time off. After just a few months she would be in no shape to be able to go out in the field. And then there would be a baby, a tiny human completely dependent upon her.

  
Dependent on both of them.

  
S.H.I.E.L.D was Daisy’s whole world. Keeping Earth safe, helping Inhumans, fighting for the greater good; that was her passion. And she had her whole family as her team. Everyone she loved was a part of this job, and being forced to leave it… he didn’t know what that would do to her.

  
If she chose the second option, he didn’t know what that would do to her, either.

  
It was times like these that he wished he was better with words.

  
“You… we’ll have to find out no matter what,” he said softly. “It will be better once you know for sure. It could be negative, and then you don’t have to worry.”

  
Her whole body tensed in his arms.

  
He waited. Even though he and Daisy had gotten better at communication, they usually had to gather some courage before speaking about a topic this heavy. Her fingers tightened against his shirt and he felt her swallow several times before she opened her mouth again.

  
Her voice was so quiet that he barely heard it.

  
“What if I don’t want it to be negative?”

  
Everything inside of him seemed to pause for half a second, and then he slowly released all of the air from his lungs.

  
What if it wasn’t negative? And what if she was okay with that? What if she went through with the pregnancy and had a kid in nine months? Her fear would come true then: she would have to stop working, at least for a while. She would have to learn to put her own well-being first so that she could prioritize the kid’s well-being. He had no idea if S.H.I.E.L.D. had a policy about babies, but he assumed they weren’t allowed on base. She would probably have to live somewhere else, at least temporarily.

  
He realized why she was actually upset.

  
She wanted the baby, but that meant a part of her was willing to give up her job. It meant that she would give up her job, starting the moment one of her superiors found out. And even if her choice was already made, it would still break her heart.

  
What if the test wasn’t negative? And what if he was okay with that? What if they took this on together and had a kid in nine months? His fears may come true then: he would see once and for all that he wasn’t capable of taking care of anyone besides himself. He had let Gabe down so many times, and if he and Daisy weren’t so similar he probably would have let her down by now, too. He would also have to compromise with the Rider, keep their work in this dimension or at least get their trips down to a few days. Otherwise he would end up an absentee father.

  
He tightened his hold on Daisy. He wouldn’t do that to her, so long as he could help it.

  
As they sat there in their pajamas, slumped against the bathroom wall, a sureness rose up in him that sparked a sensation of want in his chest. It didn’t subdue his fears; his anxiety over taking care of his loved ones would never go away. But now he could picture Daisy in his house in L.A., smiling from the couch with a hand on her rounded stomach. He could see big brown eyes staring up at him from a crib, and he could hear the cries late at night and whispered fights in the kitchen and the laughter during morning cartoons. He could feel the unconditional adoration blooming beneath his ribs and he suddenly yearned for it all.

  
He looked down at the woman in his arms. It was possible that at this very moment he was holding her and the child they created together. Were they allowed… was it alright if two high school dropouts with dark pasts and mostly-controllable powers who hadn’t even said ‘I love you’ yet wanted a baby?

  
“If you don’t want it to be negative, then we’ll figure it out.”

  
She tipped her head back and met his gaze with her own wide eyes. “Would you… what do you want?” she asked.

  
“You,” he said honestly. “For you to be happy. And maybe… maybe the opportunity to have something more. Together.”

  
A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Are you sure?”

  
He nodded and smiled back. A breathless laugh escaped her as her head fell against his shoulder again. They stayed like that for a moment, dazed and terrified and silently giddy, before Robbie said “you should probably take that test now.”

  
She kicked him out of the bathroom to do it. He listened closely to the sound of the box opening and the instructions unfolding, and then he did his best not to listen as she used it. In that minute he took the chance to look around the room. It was clearly Daisy’s bunk: stray pieces of clothing were scattered near her hamper, the desk sported two laptops and a few half-eaten bags of her favorite snacks, and there was a picture collage on one wall that included images from all the way back during her first year with the team. His wandering mind tried to fit a crib into the space. Perhaps on the left wall if she moved the desk a few feet to the side -

  
No, he wouldn’t go there. If the test was positive they would have to go right to Mack and Coulson. As Director and Assistant Director, they would have final say over whether or not Daisy could maintain her S.H.I.E.L.D. duties, let alone stay on base with a baby. Considering how difficult it would be to baby proof the secret lair of a spy organization, he assumed the answer to that would be no. At least there was his and Gabe’s home in L.A., but considering the size of the place and the state of his neighborhood that situation wouldn’t be ideal -

  
The picture collage caught his eye again. There was image upon image of Daisy with her arm slung over a teammate’s neck or someone hugging her or a group of them sharing a laugh or a beer. He suddenly felt like an idiot. The team loved Daisy just as much as she loved them. They wouldn’t even consider kicking her off base. The more he thought about it the more he realized how daft he was, ‘cause he had spent enough time with the team to see how far they would go to protect each other. He was still struggling to understand devotion like that. Though he felt it with Gabe, and with Eli before he went crazy, his family’s dynamics hadn’t been fit for growing strong, unconditional bonds. He was learning, though, and Daisy and her found family were great teachers. Baby proofing an entire secret spy agency base would probably seem like a small price to them if they got to support Daisy. They would most likely fight over who got to babysit, and they would always have someone to turn to for help. It still baffled him to see Daisy occasionally doubt their love and loyalty to her. Apparently they both still had learning to do.

  
The bathroom door opened. Robbie turned to see Daisy with one hand on the knob and another on the doorframe, looking lost.

  
“Hey.”

  
“Hey.”

  
They stared at each other awkwardly.

  
“How long do we wait?” he asked.

  
“Five minutes,” she said. “I started a timer.” She turned so that they could both see the white plastic stick resting on the counter. While Daisy kept watching it like it was about to explode, he let his eyes travel to her face. She was worrying at her bottom lip.

  
“C’mon, chica,” he said as he reached out and took her hand. He pulled her from the bathroom towards the bed where he flopped down gracelessly. With a light tug on her hand, he got her to reluctantly lay down next to him. When he stretched out his arm it only took her a second to tuck herself against his side. He couldn’t help but wonder if the slight swell between her hips felt bigger than normal.

  
“Hey Reyes?”

  
“Yeah?”

  
“I think I’m pregnant.”

  
“Yeah?”

  
“Yeah.”

  
His heart pounded beneath her ear.

  
“Hey Reyes?”

  
“Yeah?”

  
“Do you wanna… would you be okay with having a baby with me?”

  
He breathed in deeply and let the air out gradually. “Yeah. I’m all in if you are.”

  
“Okay,” she said. Her body relaxed against his. She pressed a kiss against his neck. Four minutes left.

  
“Hey Daisy?”

  
“Yeah?”

  
He swallowed. “You know that I love you, right?”

  
He felt her breathing stop. Her head tipped back, and he mustered the courage to meet her gaze. “Yeah,” she said. “Do you know that I love you?”

  
“Yeah,” he said.

  
“Good,” she said. Her smile made him feel warm. She tucked her head against his shoulder once more.

  
“Hey Daisy?”

  
“Yeah?”

  
“I think you’ll be a great mom. And still a great S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.”

  
She curled around him more tightly. He could feel her grin against his skin.

  
“You don’t think Mack will bench me?”

  
“He’ll definitely bench you. But not before you bench yourself.” He got her to look him in the eye. “Taking a break doesn’t mean you have to stop. Your focus will just shift for a bit.”

  
The furrow in her brow loosened. Three minutes.

  
“You’ll be a great dad.”

  
Anticipation and fear and excitement made the back of his neck tingle.

  
“I don’t know. There’s a lot I gotta work on.”

  
She rolled back so that she was on her side, her head propped up by her elbow.

  
“We’ll work on it together.”

  
She kept a hand over his heart. He tangled their fingers together.

  
“We’ll have a lot of people wanting to help us.”

  
The furrow in her brow returned. “I don’t… I don’t want to burden them. This is my mistake and I shouldn’t drag them into it.”

  
“Our mistake,” he corrected with a hand on her cheek. “I know you’re worried about having to leave, but think about your team. Coulson will be a total grandpa, Mack is definitely tío material, and you know Fitzsimmons would go crazy with ideas and toys. They’d build a whole new room for the baby before asking you to go.”

  
She smiled almost bashfully. Two minutes.

  
“I guess you’re probably right.”

“Can I get that in writing?”

  
“Shut up.” She smacked his chest. He buried his nose in her hair. For a moment they just breathed in unison.

  
“Gabe…”

  
“Gabe will be excited, too.”

  
“Gabe will be freaked out.”

  
“Nah, Gabe loves kids. And despite what you think he loves you, too. You’re family, Daisy.” He buried his fingers in her hair and shifted onto his side so they were pressed chest to chest. “We’re gonna be a family. This kid will have better than what we had. I promise.”

  
One minute. She kissed him like her life depended on it. He kissed her back until his head swam.

  
The timer went off.

  
Daisy got up first. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and made it to the door before he got off the mattress. By the time he stood in the bathroom again Daisy had the test in her hands. Her back was to him, but he could see her face in the mirror. She was looking down at the stick, her lips slightly parted. His pulse was still hammering.

  
“Daisy?”

  
“It’s negative,” she breathed.

  
In hindsight, he knew that moment was backwards. He should have felt relieved. Their lives weren’t going to be changed forever. They could keep working how they wanted to, and they didn’t have to worry about fixing their inner demons so that they could care for a helpless, tiny human. They had dodged a bullet.

  
But right then he felt a little like he had been shot. His lungs deflated. As his heart rate slowed down, his stomach twisted uncomfortably. The images that had been filtering through his mind for the past twenty minutes - telling Gabe he was going to be a tío, a perfect copy of Daisy’s eyes looking at him from a stroller, teaching a kid with his freckles about cars - dissolved into improbable daydreams.

  
He shook his head and cleared his throat. He shouldn't be upset. He hadn't actually lost anything.

  
“Alright,” he said dumbly. “I guess it is just the flu.”

  
“Yeah,” she said. The disappointment in her voice was poorly hidden. Before he could think of something more to say, she let the test tip into the trash can. “Good. Now we don’t have to worry.”  
She tried to brush past him, but he wrapped his arm around her front before she could exit the bathroom.

  
“You okay, chica?”

  
“Yeah,” she repeated, her pitch too high to be believable. “You were right about me needing to take the day off. I don't want to get the rest of the base sick.”

  
Instead of pointing out that she had been interacting with the whole base for three days already, he just said “good plan.” She pushed out of his embrace. He stood by the edge of the bed as she pulled off her sweatpants and dropped heavily on top of the sheets. “Do you want me to get you toast or something?”

  
“No,” she said with more false casualness. “You should probably go. I don't want to give this to you.”

  
“I've slept next to you the past two nights, and you know I don't get sick like that anymore."

  
“I know, I just…” her words faded with her exhale. “I just want to sleep. I'll see you later, okay?”

  
He stood there a moment longer, fighting against the ache in his chest and the knots in his gut. Not two minutes ago he had been lying there next to her, the future stretching out before them wide and bright. Now all he could see was the dimness of the room.

  
“Okay, chica,” he sighed. “I'll see you later. Text me if you need anything.”

  
He found his clothes and dressed quickly. With his hand on the knob he risked a glance at the bed. Daisy lay with her back to him, her breathing slow and even. He shut the door to her bunk behind him.

  
The hallway was quiet and empty. He didn’t know what to feel, and he shrugged his shoulders roughly to shake away the sensation. There was no need to be upset, he told himself again. He hadn't actually lost anything. He knew that.

  
But he couldn't get his heart to agree.


	2. Chapter 2

Daisy spent the rest of that day alternating between her bed and the bathroom. The following night, she continued to throw up and generally feel terrible. She sent Robbie a text that suggested he sleep in his old bunk. By the next morning she just felt restless, so she ignored Robbie’s text about staying in bed again and went to make up her missed day of work.

  
She didn’t feel like socializing, and she really didn’t want to get anyone else sick, so she holed herself up in the mainframe room and spent a few hours meticulously searching for weaknesses and ways to improve their cyber security. Then she swiped some fruit from the kitchen before picking a quiet corner of the base to tap into the bracelet trackers on their Inhuman assets. All of their movements seemed normal, and no one had sent any messages. After taking care of a few emails, she went back to her bunk to change quickly before heading to the training room. She kept her headphones in and her eyes focused straight ahead, and no one came near her. She destroyed one punching back before moving to a treadmill, but after only a half mile she felt light headed.

  
Doing her best to not draw attention, she was able to make it all the way to an empty hallway before swaying on her feet. She let herself lean against the wall and slide to the ground. Her music continued to pulse in her ears.

  
Though she was trying to convince herself otherwise, she knew that she was running away as fast as she could without ever leaving the walls of the base. She could work herself to the bone and blast music and spend all of her energy on not thinking, but no matter what she did she wouldn't be able to escape the hollow feeling gnawing at her stomach.

  
She felt ridiculous. She was overreacting, letting this illness get to her even though she’d been through much worse. There was no need to feel so dismayed; nothing had changed. She was still Daisy Johnson, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., hero to Inhumans and humans alike. Saving the world was still her life and she damn well enjoyed it. She was still the same person she had been three days ago.

  
Except she wasn’t. Three days ago she hadn’t known what it felt like to love so purely, so instinctually. She hadn't imagined fresh paint on nursery walls or the sight of Robbie giving piggyback rides. Now she knew exactly what those phenomena were like, as well as what it felt like to have them taken away. When she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the brick wall, the truth soaked through her thin veil of escapism. S.H.I.E.L.D. may be her life right now, but a part of her wanted more. For the half a day she had the unused pregnancy test in her possession, she had been afraid, nauseous, confused - and excited. She couldn't help but picture what a positive test result would lead to: physical limitations and pain and possibly strained relationships, yes, but also the chance to give life to a being who would be so special, so beautiful, so innocent…

  
This kid will have better than what we had.

  
Robbie’s words echoed through her mind and left a stinging pain in their wake. Had there actually been a baby, something half her and half Robbie, it would have been so loved, so cherished. Her roll at S.H.I.E.L.D. certainly would have changed, but Coulson didn't hire her because she could fight or quake people away: she had skills that wouldn't require putting a child in danger. And Coulson would have been thrilled, and May would have been so happy and Fitzsimmons… the baby would have never lacked a family like she and Robbie had. They would have made sure of that.

  
“Daisy?”

  
She couldn’t stop herself from flinching; she felt distinctly like she had been caught misbehaving. When she opened her eyes, she found Jemma looking down at her. She didn’t seem surprised to find Daisy there.

  
“Hey.”

  
“Robbie told me you weren’t feeling well. He asked me to come check on you.”

  
“I’m fine,” she said.

  
“Then why are you sitting against the wall with a distressed demeanor?”  
“It’s just a stomach bug.”

  
“Then why are you out of your bedroom?” Jemma crossed her arms. She hadn’t told her off yet but Daisy already felt thoroughly chastised. “Come on, let’s get you to the lab.”

  
“Jem -”

  
“Doctor’s orders.”

  
There was no arguing with Dr. Jemma Fitzsimmons.

  
Thankfully the lab was empty besides a single assistant, and Jemma quickly shooed him away.

  
“You can sit down right over there, I just need to wash up and prep for a blood draw.” Daisy sat as instructed and watched Jemma work for a few moments. “So,” she said as she unwrapped a fresh needle. “Robbie mentioned acute vomiting and fatigue. Any other symptoms?”

  
“Um...a headache, maybe, but I could just be dehydrated. And...no, I guess that's it.”

  
“Don't hold anything back,” Jemma said in her doctor voice. “Even if the symptom seems inconsequential it could help me give you a more accurate diagnosis, which would allow me to treat the illness more efficiently. Especially since I’m still technically not a medical doctor and need all of the guidance I can get.”

  
Daisy swallowed and looked at the ceiling. “Mood swings,” she answered. “And my period is later than usual. And the puking only happens at night.”

  
She could hear Jemma freeze.

  
“Well, those are very particular…”

  
“I already took the test, Simmons,” she snapped. But then she immediately deflated, because this was Jemma, and it wasn't her fault that she had allowed herself to want something she shouldn’t have.

Softer, she said “it was negative.”

  
“Oh,” Jemma breathed. She started up her movements again and kept her expression forcefully neutral. “Then that narrows things down. We'll just see what this test reveals and go from there.”

  
The draw was nearly painless, and before Daisy knew it her blood was in the machine and Jemma was smoothing a bandaid over her arm.

  
When she made to stand Jemma quickly pushed her into her seat again.

  
“Not so fast. Your symptoms are a bit abnormal for the run-of-the-mill stomach bug, so I want to give you a thorough check up before releasing you.”

  
“Jemma, I’m not really up for -”

  
“Which is exactly why I need to examine you. If you don’t feel well enough to simply lay on a bed and let me check your vitals and poke your stomach, then you may be more ill than you think.”

  
Daisy shut her eyes and forced down her frustration. Jemma meant well. Jemma always meant well. She was just doing her job. Daisy didn’t need to snap at her, or cry, or pour her heart out…

  
“Daisy, is there something you’re not telling me?”

  
It wasn’t until Jemma spoke to her in a gentle voice that she realized her eyes had been closed for nearly a minute.

  
She opened her eyes to find Jemma standing before her with a caring, albeit concerned expression. She had taken that look for granted so many times during their friendship. She had even pushed Jemma away before because of that very look. But Daisy had finally realized that during hard times, the support of her team was the best remedy. Jemma’s empathy was all she needed to crumble.

  
“I thought I was pregnant,” she admitted. “And I was kinda happy about it.”

 

“Oh, Daisy.”

  
Jemma knelt down and enveloped her as unwanted tears spilled onto her cheeks. She was too tired to fight them this time.

  
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I can’t stop overreacting.”

  
Jemma leaned back on her heels. “Why do you think you’re overreacting?”

  
Daisy roughly pushed the tears away with the heel of her hand. God, she felt ridiculous. “I can’t stop crying and feeling frustrated at everything. I’m acting like… like I actually lost a baby, which is super selfish. I haven’t actually lost anything, I’m just… not pregnant. Which is a good thing because how the hell would I raise a kid with a job like this?”

  
“Daisy,” Jemma said as she gently swiped her cheeks with latex-covered thumbs, “your feelings are valid. Emotions are partially formed by chemical reactions that we have no control over. It isn’t selfish for you to mourn a lost dream.”

  
That’s what she’d been avoiding this weekend: mourning. What right did she have to mourn something as inconsequential as a half-baked dream? What right did she have to want something that would inhibit her from doing her work and saving the world?

  
She didn’t know how to put it into words again, so she just shook her head. Jemma sighed.

  
“Fitz and I have been trying to get pregnant,” she said flatly. Daisy’s head snapped up and she stared at her with wide eyes.

  
“Really? Jem, that’s great -”

  
“It is. Even though we’ve dedicated ourselves to protecting others, we’re so excited to finally grow our own family. We know it’s going to take some adjustments: time out of the field, more precautions in the lab. But it’s worth it. Just the thought of finally holding our child makes me want to laugh with joy.”

  
Daisy lowered her gaze to where their hands were clasped together. Jemma’s wedding ring reflected the bright lights of the lab, acting like a beacon of love and devotion. Though Jemma and Fitz were bound to science and both worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., they had managed to make a life for themselves - a life together - outside of their jobs. Could she and Robbie do it, too? Their situation was so different: unmarried, unsettled, weighed down by the baggage of messed up families and tainted public personas. No matter how she looked at it, Daisy kept coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t fit to be a mom, let alone deserved to be one.

  
“Daisy,” Jemma said with a firm voice. “I can hear you thinking. Stop for a moment and let yourself feel. It is okay to want something beyond all this… do you?”

  
Daisy did her best to follow Jemma’s order. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and for once was honest with herself.

  
“I want to be a mom,” she whispered. To her surprise reality did not fall to pieces. Neither Mack nor Coulson nor Nick Fury himself stormed in to take her badge. Jemma simply nodded encouragingly. “I want to be a mom,” she said again, “and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and for a moment I thought it was gonna happen. And when it didn’t… it hurt like a bitch.”

  
Jemma smiled at her with watery eyes. Her own vision blurred as more tears welled up, but she wasn’t ashamed of them this time.

  
“I want to be a mom,” Jemma said, “and I will still be a damn good scientist while doing it. And I know that all of our grief will be worth it in the end.”

  
Daisy nodded. She reached out and wrapped Simmons in the best hug she could muster. “Thank you, Jem. For being so reasonable all the time, and for making needles and feelings less scary.”

  
Jemma chuckled wetly against her shoulder.

  
“It’s my pleasure, Daisy. Just promise me -” the computer behind her beeped, indicating the blood work results were in. She glanced over her shoulder briefly before catching Daisy in one last pointed gaze. “Promise me that you will stop putting yourself down for feeling what you feel. Trust me, it leads nowhere.”

  
“I promise.”

  
“Good.” Jemma gave her another smile and tapped her knee before going to the computer. “And don’t think you’re getting out of the rest of your check-up. That’s definitely still happening once I see these results.”

  
Daisy took a refreshing breath and dried her cheeks; her chest felt lighter than it had in days. She almost wanted to laugh; had she done this sooner she would have avoided so much angst and strife. Looks like she still needed to work on her coping mechanisms with her therapist. Gosh, she needed to apologize to Robbie.

  
“Jemma?” The scientist was staring at the computer screen, and though Daisy could only see her profile the look of astonishment was clear on her face. “Hey, Simmons, what’s wrong?”

  
“No-Nothing,” she stammered, her eyelids fluttering. She leaned closer to the screen as if to study it better. “How many pregnancy tests did you take?”

  
“Uh… one?”

  
A smile spread across Jemma’s face, and Daisy’s pulse ticked up again. She watched with growing anxiety as Jemma scooped up her tablet and hurried back to her chair. She made a few quick taps on the small screen before turning it so Daisy could see.

  
“I don’t know what any of this means,” Daisy said flatly. She wasn’t in the mood for games, and the tablet screen appeared to be nothing more than color-coded numbers and abbreviations.

  
Jemma turned the tablet back around and said “you have acute, cyclical vomiting, heightened emotions, lack of appetite, a late period, and your estrogen, progesterone, and hCG levels are high.” She finished with a satisfied huff and hugged the tablet to her chest. Daisy stared at her dumbly. Jemma rolled her eyes before saying “have you ever heard of the concept of a false negative?”


	3. Chapter 3

Robbie had been sitting on Daisy’s bed for close to half an hour. He had given her space for the past day and a half, but he wanted to check on her and make sure she was feeling better. And make sure that they were okay. He had looked for her around base, and had grown more agitated with each room she wasn’t in, but then Fitz had caught him in the hallway and discretely mentioned that Daisy was with Jemma. That calmed him some, knowing that she was with someone who could help her in ways that he couldn’t. He was still uneasy though, and would remain so until he could hold Daisy in his arms again and apologize for not being better, for not being the person she could open up to.

He was fidgeting with his gloves and deciding on the best words to start with when Daisy opened the door.

“Hey,” she said, and he was relieved to see a real smile on her face.

“Hey,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay,” she said. She stood awkwardly by her door and he remained awkwardly by the bed. Everything he had rehearsed had flown from his head the moment he saw her face.

“Did you see Simmons?” he managed.

“Yeah,” she said, her tone brighter than he expected. “I actually wanted to talk to you about that.”

His stomach dropped. “I’m sorry about telling her without asking you first, but I knew you wouldn’t go unless I forced you, and I figured you’d listen to Simmons more than me.”

She chuckled, and the knot around his lungs loosened. When she finally sat down on the bed beside him he made sure to keep his hands in his lap; he didn’t know what she’d want from him just yet.

“Thank you,” she said, “for doing that.”

He was almost guilty about how surprised he felt. He had hoped time with Simmons would help Daisy out of her funk, but he hadn't expected this complete 180 from the distant front she’d been putting up this weekend. Did the biochemist have a psychology degree, too?

“So… was she able to help?” he asked cautiously.

“Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “But… I need to ask you something first.”

“Sure,” he said immediately.

For a moment Daisy just fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist. She wouldn't look up. Then: “When you said that you would have a baby with me, were you being honest or were you just caught up in the moment?”

He blinked. Again, not what he expected. “Of course, I…” he started, but he found that the rest of that answer felt insincere. He had been caught up in the moment; the twenty minutes in which his and Daisy’s baby had a chance of existing were a whirlwind of emotions and instincts that told him to love and cherish both the woman in his arms and the child she might be carrying. Now, with his head clear, he had to pause and consider her question. Did he want to have a baby with her? Did he want to be a father at all? He thought back through all of the musings and daydreams he had had during their relationship, and especially during the previous few days. He thought of his past, and Daisy’s past, and their families, and the family they had built together. He thought about how he wanted a future with Daisy… and now he saw one that included a kid they could raise to be a good person, a kid who would be loved more than anyone had ever been loved before.

“Yes,” he answered. “Yeah, I want a baby with you. Someday.”

“Someday?”

He couldn't help the grin that spread over his face. “Yeah, chica. Someday, when you’re ready to take break from kicking ass, we’ll have a house and do all of that domestic shit, and we'll have the best kid in the world.”

He leaned in, and she met him halfway so that their foreheads pressed together. She took his hands out of his lap and pulled them into her own.

“How about October?”

He pulled back far enough to look into her eyes. She was biting her lip again, but this time it seemed mischievous.

“What?”

“What if someday was this coming October?”

Something akin to hope was building in his chest. “What do you mean?”

“Have you ever heard of a false negative?”

He shook his head. She was doing a really bad job of forcing down a smile, and his brain was doing a really bad job of keeping up.

“Basically a pregnancy test can be wrong. But Jemma Simmons and her blood tests are always right. And they say I'm pregnant.”

 

 

Robbie was distinctly uncomfortable. He craved the familiar rumble of his car underneath him and the shelter of his leather jacket. Every time he went to flip his keys he remembered with a wince that they had brought a nondescript S.H.I.E.L.D. issued car. And that Daisy had driven. With each step he wondered what he had gotten himself into. Aisle after aisle in the brightly lit superstore was filled to the brim with plastic and artificial colors and products that screamed Buy Me! There were shelves of dolls, Legos, video games, crafts: it made his neck hurt, looking back and forth to see everything. Who needed this stuff? Who thought of this stuff?

Daisy, who was walking a step ahead of him, glanced over her shoulder and shot him a knowing look. With a sly smile she took his hand and pulled him around the last set of tall shelves. Suddenly everything was… soft. They’d finally found the infant section.

“Alright,” Daisy said, “Fitz is over-engineering our crib and car seat, but we need to find a monitor, one of those giant neck pillow looking things, some bottles, and OHkay, what -”

From their vantage point Robbie had a clear view of the onesies. He made a beeline for them, and since he was still holding Daisy’s hand, she was tugged along with him. When they made it to the wall of tiny hanging outfits he immediately pulled one down that said “My Mommy is My Superhero.” He watched Daisy’s reaction carefully. She read the rainbow colored words a few times before her eyes misted over. Then she slowly tipped into Robbie, her face smushing against his chest.

“It’s not funny to make a pregnant woman cry just because it’s easy.” she mumbled into his shirt.

“We’re getting it, right?”

“We are definitely getting it.”

Shopping went more smoothly after that. The infant section was definitely designed with first time parents in mind, and it felt much less overwhelming than the rest of the store. Though he would never admit it, Robbie almost began to enjoy browsing the square cardboard books and impossibly fluffy stuffed animals. Everything was joyful, safe, innocent: three elements he thought his life had lost for good. Now, with their shopping cart quickly filling up with toys and necessities for their soon-to-be kid, it was easier to see how he was going to make those three qualities dominate his child’s life.

He was broken from his reverie by the sight of a stuffed monkey dressed in a lab coat. “Daisy, do you see… Daisy?”

He turned and realized that his fiance was no longer by his side. He grabbed the monkey and wandered through a few aisles, doing his best to tamp down his paranoia. It wasn’t unusual for them to go separate ways in a big store. Daisy could take care of herself. Though their lives warranted extra caution, he didn’t need to be irrational. The shelves in this section were shorter, no one could have snuck up on them. But he should be able to see her…

He found her sitting in gray rocker-glider chair, her hair in a messy bun and her eyes closed. Relief quieted his anxious thoughts. She was rocking lazily, seeming more comfortable than she had in weeks. Currently six months along and definitely showing it, she had been struggling to find a position that relieved the pain in her back and feet and didn’t make her “feel like a beached whale,” as she had described it. She certainly wasn’t comparable to anything awkward right now; she had a blissfully content expression, and the simple ring on her left hand sparkled subtly as she rested it over her stomach. The increasingly familiar warmth in his chest spread all the way down to his toes. This view - Daisy and their almost-baby, happy and safe - was his favorite, and would remain so until he could actually see their daughter in her mother's arms.

“Should I pick you up in a few hours?” he asked.

“Yepp,” she answered without opening her eyes. “Have Mack email me the notes from this afternoon’s meeting.”

“You got it, chica. But before you fall asleep you gotta check this out.”

When she saw the monkey scientist, her face lit up. “Oh my god.”

“Think Fitzsimmons will like it?”

“I think Fitz will cry.”

She scooted forward in the chair, and even put her hands on the armrests to push herself up, but then she gave Robbie a pleading look. With a smile he stuck out his his hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Thanks,” she said breathlessly.

“Are we getting the chair?”

She batted her eyelashes. They were getting the chair.

“Last thing,” she said as they returned to walking around. “You found your gift for Simmons. Now I need to find something that will let their Little Monkey know that I’m the cool aunt.”

“Aren’t we not supposed to know about el mono pequeño yet?”

“Technically you’re not supposed to know. I’m Jemma’s best friend, so I’m an exception.”

“I thought Fitz was her best friend.”

“He is, but he got promoted to husband, so I moved to best friend. Keep up, Reyes.”

It took another thirty minutes, but eventually Daisy was satisfied with their haul of purchases for their own baby and for the newly discovered Fitzsimmons baby. When they finally managed to load up the car, Robbie made for the passenger side, but Daisy tossed him the keys.

“You okay?” he asked.

She stepped up close to him and smiled. “Yeah,” she answered. “I’m great. I just want to relax on the ride home.”

Home, he thought. For her, it was still the base where her team would shower her in love and reminders that she would never again be alone. It was their shared bedroom covered in pictures of their patchwork family and visits from Gabe and movie nights after a particularly tough mission. It was getting to save the world as she prepared to bring someone new into it. For him, home had always been under a car or behind a wheel or beside Gabe in a house in L.A. Now, he couldn’t think of the four letter word without also imagining Daisy’s eyes and the nearly-finished nursery back on base. He found he liked it better with the addition.

“Okay, chica,” he said with a firm kiss to her lips. “Let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm aware that some blood tests take longer. For the sake of the plot I'm assuming that with Jemma's equipment the results would only take a few minutes.


End file.
